Terminal Server Easy Print

Terminal Server Easy print

Terminal service easy printing is a new feature introduced in windows 2008 server.It enables users to print from a Terminal Services session to the local or network printers configured on the client computer without the need to install drivers on the Terminal Server.

User will see the full printer properties of the local printer in the session and have access to all printer functionality. The Easy Print universal driver acts as a proxy and redirects all UI

To use the Terminal Services Easy Print feature in Terminal Services on Windows Server 2008, clients must be running Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 6.1 client and have the .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 installed. Both included with Windows Server 2008 and will be available for download for Windows Vista.

New features in Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services:

++Terminal Services Easy Print.

++Client-redirected printers are now scoped per session.

++Printers now have the Session SID set in the list of ACLs that prevents printers from appearing in another session, even for the same user.

++Ability to view and manage session printers. By default, users, including administrators, can only see the printers that they have redirected in their session.

++Users can change access to the printers by editing the permissions in the printer properties to be made accessible to other users.

The Terminal Services Easy Print feature works seamlessly in mixed platform environments:

· x86 clients > x64 Windows Server 2008 Terminal Servers

· x64 clients > x86 Windows Server 2008 Terminal Servers

Things we need to check if TS easy printing is not working:

++clients are running Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 6.1 client and have the .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1.

a) XP SP3 includes RDC 6.1 client. But we need to install .NET Framework

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (which includes .NET Framework 3.0 SP1) can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=109422

b) On a Windows Server 2008-based server (that is acting as the client), you must add .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 by using either Server Manager or by adding the feature from the command line.

To add .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 by using the Server Manager user interface

  1. Start Server Manager. To open Server Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.

 2. In the left pane of Server Manager, right-click Features, and then click Add Features.

 3. On the Select Features page, expand .NET Framework 3.0.

4. Select the .NET Framework 3.0 Features and the XPS Viewer check boxes, and then click Next.

 5. Click Install.

 To add .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 by using the command line

 1. Start the command prompt with elevated privileges. To do this, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

 2. At the command prompt, type the following, and then press ENTER:

pkgmgr.exe /iu:NetFx3

The installation occurs silently, and may take several minutes.

 c) Windows Vista® with SP1 includes both of the required components. By default, Windows Vista with SP1 supports the Terminal Services Easy Print driver with no additional configuration

++ Check if tsprint.dll in the following location:

%systemroot%\System32\Spool\Drivers\w32x86\3\tsprint.dll (Terminal Services Easy Print is implemented in tsprint.dll)

++Check the Terminal Services Easy Print and compare with the working machine.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\ <architecture>\Drivers\Version-3\Terminal Services Easy Print

Terminal Service Printing Group Policies

Group Policies for Terminal Services printing are located in the following container:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\Terminal Server

Table: Terminal Services Print Group Policies

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hi Scott, That should not restrict easy print. But i am curious to know on which link we are connecting? Is there any firewall in between?

• Anonymous
  August 20, 2008
  Easy print is working fine on the internal network, however, when I connect over the internet no local printers on mapped in the TS session.  Is there a bandwidth limitation?

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 10, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 19, 2009
  Hi, i have a really odd problem with some printers and easy print. The printer redirects fine, and a windows test page will print perfectly, however, try printing a PDF and it comes out all wrong, like the text is overlapping. Has anyone else experianced this with EasyPrint? In one instance, where there was a driver for the printer onthe server, and easyprint was turned off, it worked fine (after having failed to print correctly using the EasyPrint driver).

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2009
  I have also had this strange printing problem where pages come out with text overlapping and symbols instead of text, I suspect it is becouse these printers are old and the drive is not compatible with easy print. Has anyone found a solution, or a way to have some printers using easy print and other old printers using redirected printing with the drive installed on the TS server.

• Anonymous
  March 08, 2010
  hi i have strang problem priters are redirected but when i give print command nthing comes out of printer and there is no error